The Night Before The Gallows
by Ebenbild
Summary: "You shouldn't be here, John," James Norrington said. "This is my district, my part of the world, and you know it." The man inside the cell waved it off unconcerned. "A slight miscalculation on my part," he admitted. "Won't happen again, I promise." A conversation and a secret between James Norrington and a certain pirate at the end of PoTC1. NO SLASH or romance!


_**Disclaimer**_ _: If PoTC was mine, I wouldn't have killed of Norrington..._

 _ **Placing:**_ _The night before Jack is hung at the end of the first movie._

 _No SLASH! I know there are a lot of stories about those two as lovers – but I have actually never seen something like this and decided that at least one story should be added to the archive that shows them a bit differently…_

xXxXxXxXxXxPiratexXxXxXxCaribbeanxXxXxXxXxCaribbeanxXxXxXxXxPiratexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **THE NIGHT BEFORE THE GALLOWS**_

sSs

" _I intend to see to it that any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves:_

 _A short drop and sudden stop_!"

sSs

The dungeons were dark, dreary and dirty.

James Lloyd Alexander Norrington hated them.

He wrinkled his nose, but forced himself to step into them anyway.

His way led him down one of the corridors, deeper and deeper into the dungeons until he finally reached _him_.

The prisoner had been sequestered away in one of the deepest parts of their dungeons – far away from anybody else. Even the other prisoners were nowhere near here imprisoned. It hadn't been James' choice of a prison for the man in front of him, but he hadn't objected when his second in command had led _him_ into this cell.

He hated seeing _him_ here – yet, he was elated to see _him_ as well.

"Oh, look who's visiting," the other man said while sitting up from the hay in his cell. "Commodore Norrington – how splendid seeing you here, mate!"

The words of the other man were half-slurred and over-enunciated.

James hated it.

He hated the falseness in the other man's voice.

He hated the other man's dreadlocks, his beard, his clothes and his whole demeanour.

He hated the other man's official ancestry and family.

He hated all things pirate.

" _I intend to see to it that any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves: A short drop and sudden stop_ ," he had told the little Miss Swan eight years ago, and that was an oath he still intended to follow – even if it meant to hang the man on the other side of the bars in front of him.

Something of his hated must have been visible to the man in front of him, because said man crooked his head and looked at him with an expression that on any other person would have looked like concern.

"I see you're still not over the fact that Father saved you back then," The man commented with a frown. "But tell me, Commodore, shouldn't you hate your own father for that day – and not mine?"

 _Ice cold water surrounding him, swallowing him whole._

 _A warm pair of hands encircling his waist and handing him over to a familiar and beloved embrace…_

James closed his eyes when the pain of memories hit him thanks to that innocent sentence of the prisoner in front of him.

 _It had been so long…_

He shook it off, determined to look strong even now, deep down in the dungeons of Port Royal.

"Stop it, John," he finally said, forcing the words out of his closed throat, not caring that it hurt. "I can't stand your act right now."

The man in front of him just crooked his head again.

"Jack," he corrected James. "It's Jack, not John."

Like a knife those words entered James' heart and he had to avert his gaze, unable to look at the other man anymore.

" _It's Jack now, Jimmy," a voice whispered in his memories. "John's dead. You'll have to get used to that."_

" _But, John!"_

" _No! Just forget it, Jimmy! Forget me, forget my name, forget my face and everything! I'm Jack now – John is gone and won't come back!"_

James wanted to scream at the man in the cell, telling him that whatever he said, to James he would always be John and nobody else!

"You shouldn't be here, John," he said instead. "This is my district, my part of the world, and you know it."

The man inside the cell waved it off unconcerned.

"A slight miscalculation on my part," he admitted. "Won't happen again, I promise."

James snorted at that, but his heart was heavy and his face tired.

"I'm sure it won't," he said bitterly. "You'll be hanged tomorrow – and this time you won't be able to break out because of a black smith and shier dumb luck."

The answer was a snicker.

"Oh!" The man crowed and jumped up from the ground. "Is the Commodore actually concerned about me?"

 _A little boy standing at his window, staring at the sea and praying that John was still alive._

 _A young man on a ship and praying that John was anywhere out there._

 _A young, future Commodore standing on the walls of Port Royal, looking out towards the sea and praying that he wouldn't meet John any time in the future ever again…_

The prisoner snickered again, his eyes knowing as if he had seen James' memories as well.

"My, my, my – what would the Admiral say?"

James gritted his teeth.

"Father has nothing to do with this, John!" He exclaimed heatedly. "Now drop the act!"

The man in the cell ambled forward and reached for him through the bars.

James stepped back so that he couldn't be touched and the other man sighed and sat back down onto the ground.

"Why so stiff, Commodore?" He asked lightly. "One could think that this is the last time you'll see me!"

And again, like a knife the words hit James' heart.

 _The gallows._

 _Tomorrow._

 _And the memory of a frightened boy pressing against the man, back then boy, in front of him before he was ripped away by his father's harsh and unforgiving hands. Ripped out of the embrace of those strong arms he had used to hide for so long._

He pressed his lips together, his mind reminding him of their first meeting after years – now months ago.

He still remembered it like yesterday.

Elizabeth falling off the cliff.

The other man pulling her out of the sea.

Their hands touching and the bitter knowledge that he knew the man in front of him – that he would have to hang the man in front of him because he ambled where he promised not to treat.

The tattoo on the man's arm was just the last evidence that James had been right and the man in front of him was the one he had feared to encounter.

"Mr Sparrow," he had called him while knowing that 'Sparrow' was not the last name that he should have called the man.

And the man had the audacity to correct him.

"It's Capt'n," he said – but James' traitorous heart had stopped, for a moment hoping beyond hope that the other man would acknowledge… would…

He was ripped out of his memories when the man in front of him laughed at him again.

"Oh, Commodore!" He exclaimed. "Don't make that face at me! It's not as if I'm gone already!"

This time, James couldn't stop himself anymore, far too agitated by his memories of the last months, of his memories from years ago…

"Drop your act at once," he demanded, ice in his voice. "This isn't you – and we both know it!"

The other man flashed him his gold-teeth and leaned back again to stretch out on the floor.

"That's no act, my gent," he said. "That's all me, savvy?"

James' hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.

"John," he finally said slowly, nearly begging with his voice alone.

"Ah, ah, ah, aah!" The other man behind the bars said, raising his right pointer finger and moving it in reprimand. "It's Jack, my gent. Jack. J-A-C-K."

But 'Jack' was not a name James would ever be able to call the man in front of him. 'Mr Sparrow' if he had to, even 'Capt'n' if he had no choice – but never Jack.

 _Never Jack._

Jack was a lie – and James could not lie, at least not to himself.

Not when he was about to kill the one man he had been aching for since he was a little boy of six. Not when he was about to kill the man who was the reason why James was still James and not 'Lawrence Norrington Junior, hater of all things pirate' – not that James couldn't and didn't act like that, but between acting and truth was a huge difference in reality.

"John, please!" This time James couldn't stop himself from actually begging the pirate behind the bars. "Stop acting!"

He was surprised when the other man's face turned from mockingly amused to concerned in a heartbeat.

Familiar and yet so foreign black eyes looked him over, searching his face for hidden truths. James didn't know what his face was telling the other man, but whatever it was – it ensured that the pirate returned to his feet and stepped forward until he reached the bars again.

There was no laughter, no act in his… in the man's gait when he stepped forward to reach out to James.

"Are you alright?" Jack said, his eyes sharpening on James' face.

It was not the question James wanted to hear.

It was not the assurance James needed, not the warmth he carved – and yet it was more than he had hoped for for so long.

He was talking before he registered what he did and he interrupted himself the moment he noticed that he had returned to a familiar pattern he should have long since forgotten…

"John, I –"

He stopped and turned away, hugging himself in an effort to shield himself from the bitter truth of tomorrow.

Jack's eyes sharpened further. There was no mad pirate in his gaze anymore, no drunkenness. Neither Elizabeth nor Will or anybody else would have recognised the man Jack had transformed into the moment he understood that James was distressed beyond his capability to deal with.

Nobody but James – because for James it was like coming home after such a long time away that he had nearly forgotten how it looked and felt like.

"Are. You. Alright, Lil' Jimmy?"

It was the familiar nickname that brought the tears to James' face, the familiar nickname spoken in that familiar, beloved voice.

In his mind he could hear his father preaching to him about pirates.

" _You need to be brave, son. There are men out there who are savages, and they want to destroy your entire way of life. They are uncivilized, heathen, thieving, filthy pirates, and when I have gone to a final rest, it is you who will carry on the banner of civility and order, and help the Crown and our allies in the East India Trading Company eradicate their slime from the Seven Seas,_ " the memory of his father reminded him.

And yet, James also remembered the warm hands enclosing around his waist and pulling him out of the unforgiving ocean – while his father had just stood by and watched.

He remembered those warm hands disposing him into the familiar hands of a boy James had always adored and loved like he hadn't loved anybody else. And the boy had held him while the pirate who had fished him out of the sea ranted at James' father for his disinterest in his children.

" _Never trust a pirate_ ," had been his father's motto.

" _Never trust a pirate_ ," had been his uncle's motto.

" _Never trust a pirate_ ," had been his brother's motto.

" _Never trust a pirate_ ," was his own motto.

James stepped forward into the arms that reached out to him from behind the bars.

The arms enclosed him, pressed him against the bars and an unwashed body – and yet, James couldn't force himself to step away again.

"What happened, Jimmy?" A voice asked, piercing through the haze of his memories.

And the voice was the one James had missed the most…

"John," he breathed.

This time there was no correction of his chosen name for the man behind the bars.

"I'm going to hang you, John," James whispered and his voice was broken. "I'm going to hang you tomorrow, John!"

A warm hand, wrapped in rags, reached out and carded through his hair. It was then that James noticed that he had forgotten to put on his wig and his hat when he came down to the dungeons.

"Tis your way, savvy?" The man behind the bars told him. "Tis our decision. Your way – my way. Royal Navy – piracy. We both knew that there was a chance for us to end up with one having to kill the other."

The answer was a bitter sob from James.

"And yet, you would have never killed me," James said with conviction in his eyes.

The other man laughed.

"Of course not, Lil' Jimmy," he agreed. "But then, it was you who chose the Royal Navy, not I. I am a pirate, Lil' Jimmy. I can act however I see fit!"

The answer was a bitter snort.

"Was that why you chose Uncle Edward over Father?" He wanted to know and his inner eyes replayed that one scene that had utterly destroyed his family.

" _You need to be brave, son."_

The look on his father's face when he finally understood that the pirate he had been chasing was the brother of his own wife.

" _There are men out there who are savages, and they want to destroy your entire way of life."_

The utter despair and then the utter hatred on his father's face when he saw his own son next to his wife's brother, pretending to be the man's son and a pirate as well.

" _They are uncivilized, heathen, thieving, filthy pirates…"_

The rough hands of his father holding him back when he tried to run to his bound and captured brother – and his father ruthlessly pushing him back and unintentionally throwing him into the sea while doing so.

" _And when I have gone to a final rest, it is you who will carry on the banner of civility and order, and help the Crown and our allies in the East India Trading Company eradicate their slime from the Seven Seas._ "

The fall.

The ice-cold water.

And his uncle's hands that fish him out of the sea, not his fathers, never his fathers.

His brother's hands enclosing around him and the hatred on his older brother's face when he looked at their unrepentant father.

"It was Father who chose his hatred over me, Lil' Jimmy," Jack corrected him softly.

James closed his eyes, breathing in deeply even if he had to breathe in his brother's unwashed body odor and the dirt of the dungeons.

As foreign as the scents around him were, there was something soothing and familiar in the air as well.

"And now we're here," James said bitterly. "A family broken by hatred – and two brothers on two sides of a war between pirates and navy."

The answer was a soft laugh from Jack.

"How true, lil' brother," he said amused. "How true!"

James' face darkened again.

"I'm going to have to hang you tomorrow, John," he said slowly with returning bitterness in his voice.

"You do," Jack answered while again ruffling the Commodore's hair. "But don't worry, I will find a way to walk away from the gallows tomorrow. I can't let my brother hang me, you know?"

"John…"

"Don't look at me like that, Commodore!" Jack exclaimed and pressed his brother's face against the bars so that he could kiss his forehead. "I'm Capt'n Jack Sparrow, savvy?"

"I don't care who you are, currently," James replied, not resisting his brother's hands. "For me, you will never truly be 'Capt'n Jack Sparrow' – so don't try to reassure me with this!"

The other man sighed and shook his head.

There was a warmth in his eyes that James hadn't seen for decades.

The eyes of the man in front of him reminded him of better times, easier times.

" _Why're you not asleep, Lil' Jimmy?"_

" _Father," the boy said. "He told me about those savages, the pirates. Tell me, John, are they truly as bad as Father tells us?"_

 _The warmth in his brother's eyes._

" _Some of them might be," the brother said. "But don't worry, Lil' Jimmy – I will always protect you from them."_

" _Even if I'm all grown up?"_

" _Even then."_

And while he had learned to live with the motto of his father, brother and uncle, James Norrington still believed that his brother would keep him safe when they sailed towards the pirates on the Isla de la Muerta.

" _Think about it: The Black Pearl. The last real pirate threat in the Caribbean, mate. How can you pass that up?"_

" _By remembering that I serve others, Mr Sparrow, not only myself."_

And yet he had gone and followed the pleas of his brother – because the man, the pirate was still his brother and he trusted him like he had always trusted the elder…

"If you can't believe in the legend of Capt'n Jack Sparrow, my dear Commodore," the man behind the bars told him in that moment, pulling him out of his memories with the warmth in his eyes and voice. "Then let me assure you, that John Lawrence Edward Norrington doesn't break a promise, savvy?"

Oddly enough that comment made James relax and believe the other man.

He might never trust the pirate Capt'n Sparrow – but he had always known that John Norrington would do anything, would endure anything, to keep James' mentally and physically as safe as possible…

" _James Lloyd Alexander Norrington! What did I say about acting properly in front of those of higher standing?!"_

" _Father, I –"_

 _But before little James had been able to plead his innocence in an attempt to escape the belt, his brother had been there and put his hand on James' shoulder._

" _It was my fault, Father," he said. "I distracted him. I apologize and accept my punishment."_

 _And the father's red face turned towards his brother, his father's right hand loosening his belt._

" _John Lawrence Edward Norrington," he said, his voice even cooler than it had before. "You know the drill."_

 _His brother just nodded and began to remove his shirt._

And James wondered if his brother's back was still marred by the punishments he had taken for James when James had invoked the father's ire.

"Don't break your promise this time, John," he told his brother nearly silently before freeing himself from his familiar warmth. "Don't break it, swear to me you won't break it, John!"

And even knowing how impossible his demand was to fulfil, he couldn't help but stop on his path out of the dungeons until he heard the promise he was aching for.

"Never, lil' brother," Jack replied. "And if I have to walk through hell to return – I will always return from the death if I can't stay alive as long as you live."

James inclined his head and accepted the promise for what it was, never knowing that it would be him that wouldn't return from death when the time came to pay the price.

"Make sure that you do," he said and left.

The next morning he was a wreck and he had to force himself to act calm and controlled when he stepped out to wait for his brother to be hung.

" _I intend to see to it that any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves: A short drop and sudden stop_ ," he had told the little Miss Swan eight years ago – and yet, he had never imagined that it would be his beloved big brother hanging.

The rope around his brother's neck.

His brother looking at him, oddly calm for a man to be hung any moment.

"Tis wrong," Elizabeth said, next to her father. For a moment, James was tempted to agree with her, but he couldn't – not as James Lloyd Alexander Norrington, son of Lawrence Norrington and hater of all things pirate.

His brother's eyes meeting his over the crowd.

William Turner confessing his feelings to Elizabeth Swan and her father.

The drums announcing the end of his brother's life.

Then Elizabeth suddenly falling unconsciousness – and him turning around to her, choosing her over the dreaded sight of his brother hanging.

The drums stopping.

His brother hanging.

And suddenly chaos.

When the chaos abided they were standing on the walls, not far from the cliffs where Elizabeth had fallen from what felt like a life-time ago.

There were swords all around them, pointing at his brother and at William.

For a moment, there was the urge in him to tell them to put down their weapons so that his brother would be out of danger, but he stopped himself and didn't actually give the order until Elizabeth joined them as well.

It hurt, to see her stepping up next to Will – leaving him so that she could stand by his brother when he couldn't stand by him even if he wanted to…

 _Oh, how he wanted to!_

" _Will we always be brothers, John?"_

" _Always, Lil' Jimmy. Always."_

" _Even if Father hurts you again because of me?"_

" _Even if you were the one trying to kill me, Lil' Jimmy. There's nothing that would stop me from being your brother – not even death."_

His eyes locked with his brother.

His brother smirked at him, the smirk barely seen and just a glitter in his brother's dark brown eyes.

The oath between them.

" _If you can't believe in the legend of Capt'n Jack Sparrow, my dear Commodore, then let me assure you, that John Lawrence Edward Norrington doesn't break a promise, savvy?"_

His brother smiled.

Then, fully emerged in his role as the pirate 'Capt'n Jack Sparrow', his brother stepped out behind Elizabeth and William Turner to tattle on about this and that, to the Governor, to James and then to Elizabeth and Will before stepping up to the wall.

There he turned to look at them, his eyes meeting James'.

His brother smirked.

"This is the day you will always… remember as the day –"

With that he fell over the cliffs, leaving James to watch him swim away and flee.

"Idiot! He's nowhere to go but back to the noose!" He could hear his second in command say in amusement – at least until the Black Pearl entered their vision and the man turned to James for advice. "What's your plan of action?"

And there was the crux of the matter.

James knew what he should do – but this was his brother he was about to pursue…

"Sir?"

It was the Governor who finally gave him an out he could live with.

"Perhaps on the rare occasion pursuing the right course demands an act of piracy – piracy itself can be the right course?"

James would never show his gratitude to the man, but he was willing to show it in other ways – even if it meant to show mercy to the man who had stolen away his fiancée. "Mr Turner."

James couldn't say what exactly he told the other man, still captured in the feeling of relief as he was, but when he walked away, he couldn't ignore the demand of his second in command any longer.

"Commodore," the man said. "What about Sparrow?"

For a moment James just stared at his man.

A little boy safe in the embrace of his big brother after a nightmare.

A young boy safe in the arms of his brother after being rescued by his uncle.

And a Commodore hiding away in the arms of his brother the day before he had to hang him…

When he finally spoke up, it wasn't Commodore Norrington speaking.

It was Lil' Jimmy who answered the question.

"Oh…" He said, forcing himself to sound dismissive. "I think we can afford to give him one day's head start!"

Because that was all he would ever be able to do for his brother – a brother he had lost so long ago; a brother he would never be able to acknowledge ever again…

With that he turned around and walked off.

" _I intend to see to it that any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves: A short drop and sudden stop_ ," and yet, if he could, Jack Sparrow would never be one of them – even if he had to sail into a tornado to ensure that…

xXxXxXxXxXxPiratexXxXxXxCaribbeanxXxXxXxXxCaribbeanxXxXxXxXxPiratexXxXxXxXxXxXx

Well, this idea bugged me for years – now, after watching the first movie again just yesterday, I finally decided to write it down.

I hope you liked it.

Ebenbild


End file.
